The field of bandwidth and related technology is populated with numerous acronyms, which can be quite challenging to understand for anyone not immersed in the field. This whitepaper provides an overview of the top 100 most commonly used acronyms in bandwidth and related technology, complete with their definitions and descriptions.
1. ISP (Internet Service Provider): Companies that provide services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet.
2. DSL (Digital Subscriber Line): A technology for transmitting digital information over telephone lines.
3. ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line): A type of DSL broadband technology with faster download speeds than upload speeds.
4. VDSL (Very High Bit-Rate Digital Subscriber Line): A DSL technology that offers fast data transmission over copper telephone lines compared to ADSL.
5. FTTH (Fiber to the Home): A type of high-speed internet connectivity that uses fiber optic cables to connect the user’s home directly to the internet.
6. FTTB (Fiber to the Building/Business): High-speed internet connectivity that uses fiber optic cables up to the building or business premises.
7. FTTP (Fiber to the Premises): This is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to replace all or part of the usual metal local loop used for last-mile telecommunications.
8. FTTC (Fiber to the Curb): A telecommunications system where fiber optic cables run directly to the curb near homes or any business environment.
9. DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification): An international telecommunications standard that enables high-bandwidth data transfer over an existing cable TV (CATV) system.
10. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access): A digital cellular technology that uses spread spectrum techniques to allow multiple users to share the same band of frequencies.
11. GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications): A standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe protocols for second-generation digital cellular networks used by mobile devices.
12. LTE (Long Term Evolution): A standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies.
13. 4G (Fourth Generation): The fourth generation of mobile telecommunications technology, succeeding 3G. A 4G system provides mobile “broadband” internet access.
14. 5G (Fifth Generation): The fifth generation technology standard for cellular networks, which cellular phone companies began deploying worldwide in 2019.
15. HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): An application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.
16. HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure): An extension of the HTTP for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet.
17. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol): One of the main protocols in the Internet protocol suite. It originated in the initial network implementation in which it complemented the Internet Protocol (IP).
18. IP (Internet Protocol): The principal communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries.
19. IPV4 (Internet Protocol Version 4): The fourth version of the Internet Protocol (IP). It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks.
20. IPV6 (Internet Protocol Version 6): The most recent version of the Internet Protocol, the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet.
21. UDP (User Datagram Protocol): An Internet protocol that allows computer applications to send messages, in this case, datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
22. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): A standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a server and a client—typically a web server (website) and a browser, or a mail server and a mail client (e.g., Outlook).
23. TLS (Transport Layer Security): A protocol that provides privacy and data integrity between two communicating applications. It’s the most widely deployed security protocol used today.
24. VPN (Virtual Private Network): A service that allows you to connect to the Internet via an encrypted tunnel to ensure your online privacy and protect your sensitive data.
25. VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network): A logical grouping of network devices that appear to be on the same LAN despite their geographical distribution.
26. QoS (Quality of Service): The description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network, especially the performance seen by the users of the network.
27. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service): An attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the Internet.
28. Mbps (Megabits per second): A standard measure of data transfer speed. A Megabit has 1,000 kilobits.
29. Gbps (Gigabits per second): A measure of data transfer speed. A Gigabit has 1,000 megabits.
30. Tbps (Terabits per second): A measure of data transfer speed. A Terabit has 1,000 gigabits.
31. P2P (Peer-to-Peer): A decentralized communications model in which each party has the same capabilities and either party can initiate a communication session.
32. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol): A technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line.
33. Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity): A family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access.
34. WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy): A security protocol for Wi-Fi networks, introduced in 1997, which was superseded by WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) in 2003.
35. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access): A security protocol to secure wireless (Wi-Fi) computer networks.
36. WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2): A security enhancement to the original WPA security standard. It provides network administrators with a high level of assurance that only authorized users can access the network.
37. WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 3): The next generation of Wi-Fi security, improving upon WPA2.
38. WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup): A network security standard that attempts to allow users to easily secure a wireless home network.
39. LAN (Local Area Network): A computer network that spans a relatively small area, such as a single room, building, or group of buildings.
40. WAN (Wide Area Network): A telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area for the primary purpose of computer networking.
41. MAN (Metropolitan Area Network): A network that connects two or more local area networks or campus area networks together but does not extend beyond the boundaries of the immediate town, city, or metropolitan area.
42. DNS (Domain Name System): The system on the internet that converts human-readable domain names (like “www.google.com”) into numeric IP addresses.
43. DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol): A network management protocol used to dynamically assign an IP address to any new device, or node, on the network.
44. MAC (Media Access Control): A unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment.
45. NAS (Network Attached Storage): Dedicated file storage that enables multiple users and heterogeneous client devices to retrieve data from centralized disk capacity.
46. SAN (Storage Area Network): A network that provides access to consolidated, block-level data storage.
47. FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A standard network protocol used for the transfer of computer files between a client and server on a computer network.
48. SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol): A network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management over any reliable data stream.
49. ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol): An error-reporting protocol network devices like routers use to generate error messages to the source IP address when network problems prevent delivery of IP packets.
50. NAT (Network Address Translation): A method of remapping one IP address space into another by modifying network address information in the IP header of packets while they are in transit across a traffic routing device.
51. VPN (Virtual Private Network): A private network across the internet that allows users to send and receive data as if their devices were connected to the private network directly.
52. MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching): A routing technique in telecommunications networks that directs data from one node to the next based on short path labels rather than long network addresses.
53. BGP (Border Gateway Protocol): A standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous systems (AS) on the internet.
54. OSPF (Open Shortest Path First): A routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link state routing algorithm and is classified as an interior gateway protocol (IGP), designed for use within an autonomous system (AS).
55. SSID (Service Set Identifier): A case-sensitive, 32 alphanumeric character unique identifier attached to the header of packets sent over a wireless local-area network (WLAN) that acts as a password when a mobile device tries to connect to the network.
56. EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution): A mobile communication standard that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM.
57. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System): A third-generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard.
58. HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access): An amalgamation of two mobile protocols, High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunication networks.
59. MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output): A method for multiplying the capacity of a radio link using multiple transmission and receiving antennas to exploit multipath propagation.
60. SIM (Subscriber Identity Module): An integrated circuit that securely stores the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) and the related key used to identify and authenticate subscribers on mobile telephony devices.
61. SDN (Software-Defined Networking): An approach to networking that allows network administrators to manage network services through abstraction of lower-level functionality.
62. AP (Access Point): A hardware device or a computer’s software that acts as a communication hub for users of a wireless device to connect to a wired LAN.
63. VoLTE (Voice over LTE): A standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals, including IoT devices and wearables.
64. NFC (Near Field Communication): A set of communication protocols that enable two electronic devices, one of which is usually a portable device such as a smartphone, to establish communication by bringing them within 4 cm of each other.
65. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification): A technology that uses radio waves to read and capture information stored on a tag attached to an object.
66. CDN (Content Delivery Network): A geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. Its goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially relative to end-users.
67. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): A communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. As an Internet standard, SMTP was first defined in 1982.
68. POP (Post Office Protocol): An Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.
69. IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): An Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection.
70. PaaS (Platform as a Service): A type of cloud computing service that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and deploying an app.
71. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): A type of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet.
72. SaaS (Software as a Service): A software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.
73. IoT (Internet of Things): The network of physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet.
74. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML): A set of web development techniques using many web technologies on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications.
75. API (Application Programming Interface): An interface or communication protocol between different parts of a computer program intended to simplify the implementation and maintenance of software.
76. HTML (HyperText Markup Language): The standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser.
77. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): A style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in HTML or XML.
78. DOM (Document Object Model): A programming API for HTML and XML documents. It defines the logical structure of documents and the way a document is accessed and manipulated.
79. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation): A lightweight data-interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate.
80. SQL (Structured Query Language): A standard language for managing and manipulating databases.
81. XML (eXtensible Markup Language): A markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
82. UX (User Experience): Refers to a person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service.
83. UI (User Interface): The space where interactions between humans and machines occur.
84. JS (JavaScript): A high-level, interpreted scripting language that conforms to the ECMAScript specification.
85. PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor): A popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development.
86. VPN (Virtual Private Network): A digital network within an Internet environment where you can send and receive data as if their computing devices are directly connected to the private network.
87. SSO (Single Sign-On): A session and user authentication service that permits a user to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications.
88. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): The integrated management of main business processes, often in real-time and mediated by software and technology.
89. CRM (Customer Relationship Management): An approach to managing a company’s interaction with current and potential customers, mainly utilizing data analysis about customers’ history with a company to improve business relationships with customers.
90. CMS (Content Management System): A software application that allows users to manage and create digital content.
91. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
92. SEM (Search Engine Marketing): A form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising.
93. WWW (World Wide Web): An information system where documents and other web resources are identified by URLs, interlinked by hypertext links, and can be accessed via the Internet.
94. URL (Uniform Resource Locator): A reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it.
95. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): The standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser, ensuring that all data passed between the web server and browser remains private.
96. PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor): A popular open-source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development and can be embedded into HTML.
97. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): A commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography.
98. GIF (Graphics Interchange Format): A bitmap image format that supports up to 8 bits per pixel for each image, allowing a single image to reference its own palette of up to 256 different colors.
99. PNG (Portable Network Graphics): A raster-graphics file format that supports lossless data compression. It was designed to replace the older and simpler GIF file format and does not have copyright limitations.
100. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks): A data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both.
The above list provides the 100 most commonly used acronyms related to bandwidth and related technology. With an understanding of these terms, you can better understand and navigate the world of network technology.